Quote:
Originally Posted by smithysbarge
All dealers are the same, some good, many bad....
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At the risk of being ridiculed for another entry into an already ancient thread...
...a friend of mine once commented on being able to recommend restaurants that "they're only as good as your last visit".
I guess this can be extended to car dealers.
Recently (about 5 weeks ago) my '03 S40 broke with an alarm/immobiliser fault. This left us stranded in Carlisle (visiting other half's relatives). Local Volvo dealer (Lloyds I believe) couldn't fit us in for another 3 or 4 days. AA took the car back to John Morris Motors (in S'thorpe). Excellent service in trying to diagnose an intermittent fault. Even gave a good price on repair except couldn't guarantee wouldn't reoccur (although they did use the old Volvo excuse that mice may have chewed the wiring). On contacting the service department the phone was even answered by John Morris himself (although it was like talking to my grandfather!).
Ended up not having confidence in the S40, didn't want the family stranded again. So exchanged for S60 that was on their website, their sales department is in Grimsby (only service now in S'thorpe). Salesman was really good. Initial deal setup over the phone, so sight unseen, I wasn't judged by my clothes only on the fact I was an existing customer. I was stuck for a car and didn't really feel I'd been fleeced with a bad trade-in deal (although I'm sure a reasonable profit was made by those involved, that's their job after all).
Based on this they're certainly earned my good will and and I'll use them again and would recommend. Maybe once again this is the difference between 'family' run firms and big multi-franchise, multi-location dealerships. In these I feel the salespeople are just about selling. It could be double-glazing, time-share or cars, they're not bothered about the actual product or even the people who buy it.